Tracking an album collection that keeps growing with a pinch of local music and life.

Soul

For long time followers of this blog, y’all know my love for Rick James and everything Rick James from cover songs to TV appearances. It only makes sense to have his protégées, the Mary Jane Girls on vinyl too!

The Mary Jane Girls were an American soul and funk group in the 1980s. They are known for their hit songs “In My House”, “All Night Long”, and “Candy Man”.

The project was to be a solo project for Joanne “Jojo” McDuffie who was the only member that sang background for Rick on tour and in the studio. Rick got who he could to make the rest of the group up. No auditions took place which resulted in other members who could not sing at all or were very limited vocally. The group could not perform live and missed opportunities such as the Tonight Show and Saturday Night Live.

The four group members took on distinctive character looks with matching personalities:

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Paul Lavon Davis (April 21, 1948 – April 22, 2008) was an American singer and songwriter, best known for his radio hits and solo career which started worldwide in 1970. His career encompassed soul, country, and pop music.

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There are so many Peaches & Herb hits, but I pretty much love them all. They’re almost all ear worms, getting stuck in your head with any suggestion of lyrics. I do have two LPs (use the tags to check them out) and a few more singles coming up too but this single seemed the most appropriate to “pledge” my own love for P&H!

Side One

I Pledge My Love

Side Two

(I Want Us) Back Together

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Peabo Bryson (born Robert Peapo Bryson, April 13, 1951, given name changed from “Peapo” to Peabo c. 1965) is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, born in Greenville, South Carolina. He is well known for singing soft-rock ballads (often as a duo with female singers) and his contribution to several Disney animated feature soundtracks.

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Have you been following the blog for a while? Does the name Peter Wolf sound familiar to you? It didn’t sound familiar to me at first and when I did a quick search to see if he’s come up previously, he had been mentioned in a post about one of my favorite events from last year, The Boston Music Awards because of his work with Johnny A.. Check out the post HERE, it definitely was a spectacular evening!

Peter Wolf (born Peter W. Blankfield; March 7, 1946) is an American rhythm and blues, soul and rock and roll musician, best known as the lead vocalist for the J. Geils Band from 1967 to 1983; and for a successful solo career with writing partner Will Jennings.

The Pointer Sisters – Yes We Can Can (written by A. Toussaint and produced by David Rubinson & Friends, Inc.)

I honestly don’t know much about The Pointer Sisters in terms of biographical information, but I am familiar with their funky, soulful music. I was sort of surprised to see how many of their singles that we have in our collection. I was fingering through one of Erica’s piles and realized that I couldn’t just skip over them because I don’t know what their legacy is. That almost made me feel obligated to check them out again. It was so worth it.

This song is amazing, poignant, and relevant in our current state of race, sex, and community relationships with the police. It really sucks that I never got to meet Frank, because the more Erica and I talk about police enforcement the more that I find I would have gotten along with him. I hope he find respect for me, because Erica has imprinted his general attitude in a way that I find reputable. I would copy the lyrics to this entire song, because they are great. However, it is much better to just listen to it.

The Pointer Sisters have a great way of blending their individual voices that doesn’t necessarily fit into a round. It is so much more sophisticated. The background vocals are very much a part of the foreground as there are conversational in their delivery. Even the music is complicated, because it almost sounds like a hip hop riff from 1973. I adore the message that “Yes We Can Can”!